Fire-tube-boiler blower.



E. C. HAFER.

7 FIRE T UBE BOILER BLOWER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 19. 1914.

Patented Aug. 24,1915.

2 %HEETS-SHEET 1.

xW/ N E. C. HAFER.

FIRE TUBE BOILER BLOWER.

APPLICATION FILED OCT-19 1914. 1,151,177. Patented Aug. 24, 1915.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

COLUMBIA PLANO RAPH IO-,WASHINGTON. D c.

IEUJVVAIt-D G. HAFER, 0F GI-IAMBERSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

FIRE-TUBE-BOILER BLOWER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

PatentedAu 24, 1915.

Application filed October 19, 1914. Serial No. 867,366.

ToaZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD C. HAFER, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chambersburg, in the county of Franklin and State ofPennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFire-Tube-Boiler Blowers; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

This invention relates to improvements in clean-out mechanism, and moreparticularly to such as is adapted especially for-use in connection withfire tube boilers.

An object in view is the delivery of a maximum blast throughout a givenset of fire tubes in amanner especially adapted to remove depositstherefrom.

Another object is the effective delivery of such a blast by meansadapted also to de liver a uniform blast to all the fire tubes of aboiler simultaneously.

With theseand further objects in view, as will in part hereinafterbecome apparent and in part be stated, the invention comprises certainnovel constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts as will behereinafter fully described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1 is a vertical, longitudinalsection through a fire tube boiler furnace showing the boiler inelevation, the parts being broken away for disclosing interiorstructure, and the structure including an illustrative embodiment of thepresent invention. Fig. 2 is a front elevation thereof, parts beingbroken away. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail face view of the controllingvalve. Fig. 4 is a vertical, central section taken therethrough. Figs.5, 6 and 7 are detail views .of one of the discharge nozzles. Fig. 8 isan enlarged, detail, fragmentary view of part of the controlling valvemechanism.

Referring to the drawing by numerals, 1 indicates an ordinary boilerhaving the usual fire tubes 2, the boiler being inclosed in a furnacehousing 3 of usual construction.

The usual steam dome 4 is provided on boiler 1 with which is connectedpipe 5, which extends to and communicates with a valve casing 6,preferably fixed on the front of the furnace housing. The tube 5communicates with the interior of the housing 6, preferably atapproximately the highest point thereof, and a drain pipe 7 communicateswith the said housing at approximately the lowest point thereof fordraining water of condensation therefrom, the pipe 7 preferablyextending to and discharging in the ash pit. A valve 8 controls theadmission of live steam into the housing 6, and a valve 9 controlsdrainage through pipe 7.

A series of ports 10 lead laterally from the interior of housing 6 andare extended within the walls of the housing to a position fordlsc-harging longitudinally or horizontally,

and each port 10 communicates with a pipe 11. Preferably for the usualboiler there are a greater number of ports 10 than the pipes 11, and theextra ports are plugged to prevent leakage, or, when preferred, thevalve housing 6 may merely be cast for having the unused ports drilledtherein, but not actually having them drilled until they are needed, sothat when for any reason an additional pipe 11 is required an additionalport 10 will be drilled, or if already prepared and plugged the plug isremoved and the new pipe 11 applied. This is the reason for illustratingin the accompanying drawing a valve casing 6 having a considerablylarger number of ports 10 than the number of pipes 11. Care is exercisedthat the ports 10 shall be spaced equally distant from each other so asto be capable of uniform control.

Within the valve housing or casing 6 is seated a hollow, cylindricalvalve 12, one

end of the cylinder forming the valve being open and communicatingdirectly with those portions of the interior of housing 6 with whichpipe 5 communicates, while the other end of the cylinder is closed withan integral or appropriately fixed disk, which disk is mounted on andfixed to an operating shaft 13, which shaft extends through the head 14of valve casing 6 and through a packing gland 15 therein, to anexteriorpoint where the shaft 13 is engaged by an operating wheel orother handle 16. The cylindrical portion of valve 1.2 is formed withradial ports 17, 17 corresponding in number and spacing to those of theports 10, so that when any port 17 is in registration with any port 10,all the other ports 17 are 'in registration with their respectivecorresponding ports 10. In addition to the ports 17, the cylindricalportion of valve 12 is formed with a similar port 18 arranged preferablyapproximately midway between two of the ports 17, so that when the port18 is inregister with one of the ports 10, no one of the ports 17 willbe in register with any of the ports 10.

As a matter of convenience of indicating to the operator the fact thatthe ports 17 are in register with ports 10, the wheel 16 is preferablystamped with some insignia cooperating with a properly relativelydisposed corresponding insignia on valve casing 6, as indicated in Fig.8, wherein the handle 16 is provided with a star 16 designed tocooperate with a star 16, the stars 16' and 16 being so disposed thatthey will be immediately opposite each other, as indicated in Fig. 8,when the ports 10 and 17 register. There is preferably a star 16 oncasing 6 for each port 10, and there is only one star 16 which may bedisposed in line with any one of ports 17, so that the operator can, bybringing star 16 to any one of the stars 16", be assured that he hasbrought all of the ports 17 into register with all of the ports 10. Onthe other hand, the handle 16 is provided with an arrow or otherappropriate insignia 18 which, when brought opposite any particular star16", will indicate that all of the ports 10 are closed except theparticular one where the star 16 appears opposite the arrow 18. Thus theoperator by bringing arrow 18 successively into register with stars 16"will successively deliver blasts to the several. pipes 11 independentlyof each other. Of course, in moving the pointer or arrow 18 from onestar to the next, the star 16 will unavoidably pass a star 16 with aresulting passing registration between ports 10 and 17, but the time ofsuch transient communication is so brief as to be negligible, and thehandle 16 may thus be rotated and effectively deliver successive blaststo the successive pipes 12 under the full head of pressure from pipe 15not weakened by distribution of the pressure throughout a number ofpipes 11 simultaneously. When communication between pipe 5. and theseveral pipes 11 is to be cut off, valve 12 is moved for positioning theseveral ports 17 out of register with ports 10, and port 18 opposite ablank where a port 10 has not been formed. Valve 8 may also be used tocut ofl supply through pipe 5.

A branch pipe 5 extends from pipe 5 to one of longitudinally arrangedpipes 20 extending along the sides of boiler 1, and having aperturesalong their upper portions for delivering blasts upwardly about theboiler for blowing ofi ashes, soot and other deposits from the topportion of the boiler. Pipes 20 are connected by arched pipes 20apertured to deliver jets rearwardly along the top of the boiler forcarrying loosened matter back to the flue. A valve 5 controls the supplyof steam to pipes 20.

. A vertically disposed tubular header 21 is arranged approximatelycentrally of the end of boiler 1, and the said header is divided bypartitions 22 into a number of tubular sections, there being one sectionfor a given set of fire tubes, and it is obvious that the number of firetubes in a set may be of any predetermined number, one desirablearrangement consisting of having two rows of fire tubes to comprise aset, and in such instance each tubular section of header 21 being incommunication with a pair of horizontal cross pipes 23, one for eachhorizontal row of fire tubes, and each cross pipe is provided with adischarge nozzle 24 for each fire tube. The lower set of fire tubesbeing usually smaller in number than the others and, there usually beingofiset tubes or miscellaneous tubes, such miscellaneous tubes arepreferably taken care of with the lowermost set, and in such evenpendent pipes 28 similarly nozzled are provided, one for each extratube.

Each nozzle 20 consists of a tubular nip ple, a cylindrical hollow bodyclosed at the free end of the nipple, the closure being formed withinclined discharge bores or apertures 26 extending generallylongitudinally but lying at an incline to the longitudinal planes of thenipple so that the streams of steam projecting through said bores aregiven, by reason of the incline of the bores, a tendency to spread andto remain apart so as to form a tube of steam packed against thesurrounding walls of the fire tube whereby the greatest amount of impactis effected against deposits in the tube.

The closure of each nozzle 24: is formed the actual existence of a steamtube, the H central portions of the area of each fire tube is filledwith steam ejected through an axial bore 25 through the closure of therespective nozzle.

In the practising of the invention, I have found that it is desirable todeliver a blast through all of the tubes at intervals, say two or threetimes daily, and this will keep the fire tubes free from being choked,but

occasionally deposits will form which cannot be removed by the generalblast because of its relative weakness incident to the large number ofjets existing, whereas such deposits may be quickly removed by a blastlimited to a few tubes including the tube or tubes containing the extradeposit. Furthermore, it is desirable at intervals, say

once a week, to thoroughly clean the fire tubes by successfullydelivering blasts to the successive sets. In doing this, however, I findthat the blowing of deposits from one set of tubes will allow theloosened foreign substances or at least some of them to settle back intoother of the fire tubes so that when the several successive blasts havebeen delivered to the several sets of tubes, only the last set blownwill be perfectly clean. A delivery of a general blast through all ofthe pipes 11 to all of the tubes will remove all of the loosenedarticles and leave all of the fire tubes perfectly clean.

What I claim is 1. In a fire tube blower, the combination, with a firetube boiler, of means for independently delivering a blast of steam todifferent fire tubes and a valve for controlling the delivery of steamthereto having means for effecting such independent delivery and meansfor effecting simultaneous delivery to all of the fire tubes.

2. In a fire tube blower, the combination, with fire flues, of pipes forindependently delivering a steam blast to said flues, a valve casingwith which all said pipes communicate, and a valve within the casinghaving ports spaced to register simultaneously with all of said pipes,said valve also having a port adapted to register independently with anyone of said pipes while the first mentioned ports are out ofregistration there with.

3. In a fire tube blower, a valve casing, a series of distributing pipesconnected therewith, a valve within the casing, means for supplyingsteam to the valve, and means for actuating the valve, the valve beingformed with a series of ports spaced to register simultaneously with allof said pipes, and being also formed with an additional port disposednot to register with any of the pipes while the first-mentioned portsare in register therewith and adapted to be brought successively andindependently into registration with the several pipes when thefirstmentioned ports are not in registration therewith.

4:. In a fire tube blower, a valve casing, a series of distributingpipes .connected therewith, a valve within the casing, means forsupplying steam to the valve, the valve being formed with a series ofports spaced to register simultaneously with all of said pipes, andbeing also formed with an additional port disposed not to register withany of the pipes while the first-mentioned ports are in registertherewith and adapted to be brought successively and independently intoregistration with the several pipes when the first-mentioned ports arenot in registration therewith, and means disposed exteriorly of thevalve casing for indicating relative registrations of ports.

5. In a fire tube blower, a valve casing adapted to be fixed to a boilerfurnace, means for supplying steam to the casing, a series ofdistributing pipes extending to the casing, a port leading laterallyfrom the interior of the casing for each of the pipes, a cylindricalvalve seated in the casing and extending across all of said ports, andhaving a series of radially disposed ports spaced to registersimultaneously with all of the ports of the casing, the valve having asimilarly formed port spaced to be out of register with any of thecasing ports when the first-mentioned valve ports are in registertherewith and to register independently and successively with the casingports when the first-mentioned valve ports are out of registertherewith, and means for revolving the valve.

6. In a fire tube blower, the combination, with fire flues, of jets fordelivering a blast to some of said tubes, other jets independent of thefirst for delivering blasts to other tubes, means for supplying fluidunder pres sure to all of said jets, and means for controlling thesupply of such fluid for delivering the same independently to theindependent jets and also for delivering such fiuid simultaneouslythereto.

7. In a fire tube blower, the combination, with fire fiues, of jets fordelivering a blast to some of said tubes, other jets independent of thefirst for delivering blasts to other tubes, means for supplying fluidunder pressure to all of said jets, and a valve for controlling thesupply of such fluid for delivering the same independently to theindependent jets and also for delivering such fluid simultaneouslythereto.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD C. HAFER.

Witnesses:

R. M. PARKER, EDGAR M. KITGHIN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

